Method for allocating priorities to a logical channel group implicitly in a d2d communication system and device therefor

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and a device for allocating priorities to a logical channel group implicitly in a D2D communication system, the method comprising: receiving information including N numbers of priority lists in order of increasing logical channel group identity from an eNB, associating each of the N numbers of priority lists with each of the N numbers of logical channel groups in an order corresponding to a sequential order of the information, when a sidelink logical channel with a first priority is configured, allocating the sidelink logical channel with the first priority to a logical channel group associated with the first priority.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and,more particularly, to a method for allocating priorities to a logicalchannel group implicitly in a Device to Device (D2D) communicationsystem and a device therefor.

BACKGROUND ART

As an example of a mobile communication system to which the presentinvention is applicable, a 3rd Generation Partnership Project Long TermEvolution (hereinafter, referred to as LTE) communication system isdescribed in brief.

FIG. 1 is a view schematically illustrating a network structure of anE-UMTS as an exemplary radio communication system. An Evolved UniversalMobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS) is an advanced version of aconventional Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and basicstandardization thereof is currently underway in the 3GPP. E-UMTS may begenerally referred to as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system. For detailsof the technical specifications of the UMTS and E-UMTS, reference can bemade to Release 7 and Release 8 of “3rd Generation Partnership Project;Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network”.

Referring to FIG. 1, the E-UMTS includes a User Equipment (UE), eNode Bs(eNBs), and an Access Gateway (AG) which is located at an end of thenetwork (E-UTRAN) and connected to an external network. The eNBs maysimultaneously transmit multiple data streams for a broadcast service, amulticast service, and/or a unicast service.

One or more cells may exist per eNB. The cell is set to operate in oneof bandwidths such as 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz and provides adownlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transmission service to a plurality of UEsin the bandwidth. Different cells may be set to provide differentbandwidths. The eNB controls data transmission or reception to and froma plurality of UEs. The eNB transmits DL scheduling information of DLdata to a corresponding UE so as to inform the UE of a time/frequencydomain in which the DL data is supposed to be transmitted, coding, adata size, and hybrid automatic repeat and request (HARQ)-relatedinformation. In addition, the eNB transmits UL scheduling information ofUL data to a corresponding UE so as to inform the UE of a time/frequencydomain which may be used by the UE, coding, a data size, andHARQ-related information. An interface for transmitting user traffic orcontrol traffic may be used between eNBs. A core network (CN) mayinclude the AG and a network node or the like for user registration ofUEs. The AG manages the mobility of a UE on a tracking area (TA) basis.One TA includes a plurality of cells.

Device to device (D2D) communication refers to the distributedcommunication technology that directly transfers traffic betweenadjacent nodes without using infrastructure such as a base station. In aD2D communication environment, each node such as a portable terminaldiscovers user equipment physically adjacent thereto and transmitstraffic after setting communication session. In this way, since D2Dcommunication may solve traffic overload by distributing trafficconcentrated into the base station, the D2D communication may havereceived attention as the element technology of the next generationmobile communication technology after 4G. For this reason, the standardinstitute such as 3GPP or IEEE has proceeded to establish the D2Dcommunication standard on the basis of LTE-A or Wi-Fi, and Qualcomm hasdeveloped their own D2D communication technology.

It is expected that the D2D communication contributes to increasethroughput of a mobile communication system and create new communicationservices. Also, the D2D communication may support proximity based socialnetwork services or network game services. The problem of link of a userequipment located at a shade zone may be solved by using a D2D link as arelay. In this way, it is expected that the D2D technology will providenew services in various fields.

The D2D communication technologies such as infrared communication,ZigBee, radio frequency identification (RFID) and near fieldcommunications (NFC) based on the RFID have been already used. However,since these technologies support communication only of a specific objectwithin a limited distance (about 1 m), it is difficult for thetechnologies to be regarded as the D2D communication technologiesstrictly.

Although the D2D communication has been described as above, details of amethod for transmitting data from a plurality of D2D user equipmentswith the same resource have not been suggested.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

An object of the present invention devised to solve the problem lies ina method and device for a method for transmitting a BSR in a D2Dcommunication system. The technical problems solved by the presentinvention are not limited to the above technical problems and thoseskilled in the art may understand other technical problems from thefollowing description.

Solution to Problem

The object of the present invention can be achieved by providing amethod for User Equipment (UE) operating in a wireless communicationsystem as set forth in the appended claims.

In another aspect of the present invention, provided herein is acommunication apparatus as set forth in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present invention, it is possible to ensure that an eNBcan schedule sidelink (SL) data having higher Per-Packet Priority (PPP)to be transmitted in a timely manner, by using inequal number mappingbetween PPP and logical channel group (LCG).

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the effectsachieved by the present invention are not limited to what has beenparticularly described hereinabove and other advantages of the presentinvention will be more clearly understood from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network structure of an Evolved UniversalMobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS) as an example of a wirelesscommunication system;

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating network structure of an evolveduniversal mobile telecommunication system (E-UMTS), and FIG. 2B is ablock diagram depicting architecture of a typical E-UTRAN and a typicalEPC;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a control plane and a user plane of a radiointerface protocol between a UE and an E-UTRAN based on a 3rd generationpartnership project (3GPP) radio access network standard;

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a physical channel structure usedin an E-UMTS system;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a communication apparatus according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram for MAC structure overview in a UE side;

FIG. 7 is an example of default data path for a normal communication;

FIGS. 8 and 9 are examples of data path scenarios for a proximitycommunication;

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram illustrating for a Layer 2 Structure forSidelink;

FIG. 11A is a conceptual diagram illustrating for User-Plane protocolstack for ProSe Direct Communication, and FIG. 11B is Control-Planeprotocol stack for ProSe Direct Communication;

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary relationship of logical channels, PPP, LCGand ProSe group for describing BSR/LCP procedures to support ProSepriorities;

FIG. 13 is a diagram for transmitting a BSR in a D2D communicationsystem according to embodiments of the present invention; and

FIG. 14 shows examples of mapping relationships between PPP and LCGaccording to embodiments of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) is a 3rd Generation(3G) asynchronous mobile communication system operating in wideband codedivision multiple access (WCDMA) based on European systems, globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM) and general packet radio services(GPRS). The long-term evolution (LTE) of UMTS is under discussion by the3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) that standardized UMTS.

The 3GPP LTE is a technology for enabling high-speed packetcommunications. Many schemes have been proposed for the LTE objectiveincluding those that aim to reduce user and provider costs, improveservice quality, and expand and improve coverage and system capacity.The 3G LTE requires reduced cost per bit, increased serviceavailability, flexible use of a frequency band, a simple structure, anopen interface, and adequate power consumption of a terminal as anupper-level re-quirement.

Hereinafter, structures, operations, and other features of the presentinvention will be readily understood from the embodiments of the presentinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Embodiments described later are examples in which technicalfeatures of the present invention are applied to a 3GPP system.

Although the embodiments of the present invention are described using along term evolution (LTE) system and a LTE-advanced (LTE-A) system inthe present specification, they are purely exemplary. Therefore, theembodiments of the present invention are applicable to any othercommunication system corresponding to the above definition. In addition,although the embodiments of the present invention are described based ona frequency division duplex (FDD) scheme in the present specification,the embodiments of the present invention may be easily modified andapplied to a half-duplex FDD (H-FDD) scheme or a time division duplex(TDD) scheme.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating network structure of an evolveduniversal mobile telecommunication system (E-UMTS). The E-UMTS may bealso referred to as an LTE system. The communication network is widelydeployed to provide a variety of communication services such as voice(VoIP) through IMS and packet data.

As illustrated in FIG. 2A, the E-UMTS network includes an evolved UMTSter-restrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), an Evolved Packet Core(EPC) and one or more user equipment. The E-UTRAN may include one ormore evolved NodeB (eNodeB) 20, and a plurality of user equipment (UE)10 may be located in one cell. One or more E-UTRAN mobility managemententity (MME)/system architecture evolution (SAE) gateways 30 may bepositioned at the end of the network and connected to an externalnetwork.

As used herein, “downlink” refers to communication from eNodeB 20 to UE10, and “uplink” refers to communication from the UE to an eNodeB. UE 10refers to communication equipment carried by a user and may be alsoreferred to as a mobile station (MS), a user terminal (UT), a subscriberstation (SS) or a wireless device.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram depicting architecture of a typical E-UTRANand a typical EPC.

As illustrated in FIG. 2B, an eNodeB 20 provides end points of a userplane and a control plane to the UE 10. MME/SAE gateway 30 provides anend point of a session and mobility management function for UE 10. TheeNodeB and MME/SAE gateway may be connected via an S1 interface.

The eNodeB 20 is generally a fixed station that communicates with a UE10, and may also be referred to as a base station (BS) or an accesspoint. One eNodeB 20 may be deployed per cell. An interface fortransmitting user traffic or control traffic may be used between eNodeBs20.

The MME provides various functions including NAS signaling to eNodeBs20, NAS signaling security, AS Security control, Inter CN node signalingfor mobility between 3GPP access networks, Idle mode UE Reachability(including control and execution of paging retransmission), TrackingArea list management (for UE in idle and active mode), PDN GW andServing GW selection, MME selection for handovers with MME change, SGSNselection for handovers to 2G or 3G 3GPP access networks, Roaming,Authentication, Bearer management functions including dedicated bearerestab-lishment, Support for PWS (which includes ETWS and CMAS) messagetransmission. The SAE gateway host provides assorted functions includingPer-user based packet filtering (by e.g. deep packet inspection), LawfulInterception, UE IP address allocation, Transport level packet markingin the downlink, UL and DL service level charging, gating and rateenforcement, DL rate enforcement based on APN-AMBR. For clarity MME/SAEgateway 30 will be referred to herein simply as a “gateway,” but it isunderstood that this entity includes both an MME and an SAE gateway.

A plurality of nodes may be connected between eNodeB 20 and gateway 30via the S1 interface. The eNodeBs 20 may be connected to each other viaan X2 interface and neighboring eNodeBs may have a meshed networkstructure that has the X2 interface.

As illustrated, eNodeB 20 may perform functions of selection for gateway30, routing toward the gateway during a Radio Resource Control (RRC)activation, scheduling and transmitting of paging messages, schedulingand transmitting of Broadcast Channel (BCCH) information, dynamicallocation of resources to UEs 10 in both uplink and downlink,configuration and provisioning of eNodeB measurements, radio bearercontrol, radio admission control (RAC), and connection mobility controlin LTE_ACTIVE state. In the EPC, and as noted above, gateway 30 mayperform functions of paging origination, LTE-IDLE state management,ciphering of the user plane, System Architecture Evolution (SAE) bearercontrol, and ciphering and integrity protection of Non-Access Stratum(NAS) signaling.

The EPC includes a mobility management entity (MME), a serving-gateway(S-GW), and a packet data network-gateway (PDN-GW). The MME hasinformation about con-nections and capabilities of UEs, mainly for usein managing the mobility of the UEs. The S-GW is a gateway having theE-UTRAN as an end point, and the PDN-GW is a gateway having a packetdata network (PDN) as an end point.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a control plane and a user plane of a radiointerface protocol between a UE and an E-UTRAN based on a 3GPP radioaccess network standard. The control plane refers to a path used fortransmitting control messages used for managing a call between the UEand the E-UTRAN. The user plane refers to a path used for transmittingdata generated in an application layer, e.g., voice data or Internetpacket data.

A physical (PHY) layer of a first layer provides an information transferservice to a higher layer using a physical channel. The PHY layer isconnected to a medium access control (MAC) layer located on the higherlayer via a transport channel. Data is transported between the MAC layerand the PHY layer via the transport channel. Data is transported betweena physical layer of a transmitting side and a physical layer of areceiving side via physical channels. The physical channels use time andfrequency as radio resources. In detail, the physical channel ismodulated using an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)scheme in downlink and is modulated using a single carrier frequencydivision multiple access (SC-FDMA) scheme in uplink.

The MAC layer of a second layer provides a service to a radio linkcontrol (RLC) layer of a higher layer via a logical channel. The RLClayer of the second layer supports reliable data transmission. Afunction of the RLC layer may be implemented by a functional block ofthe MAC layer. A packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer of thesecond layer performs a header compression function to reduceun-necessary control information for efficient transmission of anInternet protocol (IP) packet such as an IP version 4 (IPv4) packet oran IP version 6 (IPv6) packet in a radio interface having a relativelysmall bandwidth.

A radio resource control (RRC) layer located at the bottom of a thirdlayer is defined only in the control plane. The RRC layer controlslogical channels, transport channels, and physical channels in relationto configuration, re-configuration, and release of radio bearers (RBs).An RB refers to a service that the second layer provides for datatransmission between the UE and the E-UTRAN. To this end, the RRC layerof the UE and the RRC layer of the E-UTRAN exchange RRC messages witheach other.

One cell of the eNB is set to operate in one of bandwidths such as 1.25,2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz and provides a downlink or uplinktransmission service to a plurality of UEs in the bandwidth. Differentcells may be set to provide different bandwidths.

Downlink transport channels for transmission of data from the E-UTRAN tothe UE include a broadcast channel (BCH) for transmission of systeminformation, a paging channel (PCH) for transmission of paging messages,and a downlink shared channel (SCH) for transmission of user traffic orcontrol messages. Traffic or control messages of a downlink multicast orbroadcast service may be transmitted through the downlink SCH and mayalso be transmitted through a separate downlink multicast channel (MCH).

Uplink transport channels for transmission of data from the UE to theE-UTRAN include a random access channel (RACH) for transmission ofinitial control messages and an uplink SCH for transmission of usertraffic or control messages. Logical channels that are defined above thetransport channels and mapped to the transport channels include abroadcast control channel (BCCH), a paging control channel (PCCH), acommon control channel (CCCH), a multicast control channel (MCCH), and amulticast traffic channel (MTCH).

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a physical channel structure usedin an E-UMTS system. A physical channel includes several subframes on atime axis and several subcarriers on a frequency axis. Here, onesubframe includes a plurality of symbols on the time axis. One subframeincludes a plurality of resource blocks and one resource block includesa plurality of symbols and a plurality of subcarriers. In addition, eachsubframe may use certain subcarriers of certain symbols (e.g., a firstsymbol) of a subframe for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH),that is, an L1/L2 control channel. In FIG. 4, an L1/L2 controlinformation transmission area (PDCCH) and a data area (PDSCH) are shown.In one embodiment, a radio frame of 10 ms is used and one radio frameincludes 10 subframes. In addition, one subframe includes twoconsecutive slots. The length of one slot may be 0.5 ms. In addition,one subframe includes a plurality of OFDM symbols and a portion (e.g., afirst symbol) of the plurality of OFDM symbols may be used fortransmitting the L1/L2 control information. A transmission time interval(TTI) which is a unit time for transmitting data is 1 ms.

A base station and a UE mostly transmit/receive data via a PDSCH, whichis a physical channel, using a DL-SCH which is a transmission channel,except a certain control signal or certain service data. Informationindicating to which UE (one or a plurality of UEs) PDSCH data istransmitted and how the UE receive and decode PDSCH data is transmittedin a state of being included in the PDCCH.

For example, in one embodiment, a certain PDCCH is CRC-masked with aradio network temporary identity (RNTI) “A” and information about datais transmitted using a radio resource “B” (e.g., a frequency location)and transmission format information “C” (e.g., a transmission blocksize, modulation, coding information or the like) via a certainsubframe. Then, one or more UEs located in a cell monitor the PDCCHusing its RNTI information. And, a specific UE with RNTI “A” reads thePDCCH and then receive the PDSCH indicated by B and C in the PDCCHinformation.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a communication apparatus according to anembodiment of the present invention.

The apparatus shown in FIG. 5 can be a user equipment (UE) and/or eNBadapted to perform the above mechanism, but it can be any apparatus forperforming the same operation.

As shown in FIG. 5, the apparatus may comprises a DSP/microprocessor(110) and RF module (transceiver; 135). The DSP/microprocessor (110) iselectrically connected with the transceiver (135) and controls it. Theapparatus may further include power management module (105), battery(155), display (115), keypad (120), SIM card (125), memory device (130),speaker (145) and input device (150), based on its implementation anddesigner's choice.

Specifically, FIG. 5 may represent a UE comprising a receiver (135)configured to receive a request message from a network, and atransmitter (135) configured to transmit the transmission or receptiontiming information to the network. These receiver and the transmittercan constitute the transceiver (135). The UE further comprises aprocessor (110) connected to the transceiver (135: receiver andtransmitter).

Also, FIG. 5 may represent a network apparatus comprising a transmitter(135) configured to transmit a request message to a UE and a receiver(135) configured to receive the transmission or reception timinginformation from the UE. These transmitter and receiver may constitutethe transceiver (135). The network further comprises a processor (110)connected to the transmitter and the receiver. This processor (110) maybe configured to calculate latency based on the transmission orreception timing information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for MAC structure overview in a UE side.

The MAC layer handles logical-channel multiplexing, hybrid-ARQretransmissions, and uplink and downlink scheduling. It is alsoresponsible for multiplexing/demultiplexing data across multiplecomponent carriers when carrier aggregation is used.

The MAC provides services to the RLC in the form of logical channels. Alogical channel is defined by the type of information it carries and isgenerally classified as a control channel, used for transmission ofcontrol and configuration information necessary for operating an LTEsystem, or as a traffic channel, used for the user data.

To support priority handling, multiple logical channels, where eachlogical channel has its own RLC entity, can be multiplexed into onetransport channel by the MAC layer. At the receiver, the MAC layerhandles the corresponding demultiplexing and forwards the RLC PDUs totheir respective RLC entity for in-sequence delivery and the otherfunctions handled by the RLC. To support the demultiplexing at thereceiver, a MAC is used. To each RLC PDU, there is an associatedsub-header in the MAC header. The sub-header contains the identity ofthe logical channel (LCID) from which the RLC PDU originated and thelength of the PDU in bytes. There is also a flag indicating whether thisis the last sub-header or not. One or several RLC PDUs, together withthe MAC header and, if necessary, padding to meet the scheduledtransport-block size, form one transport block which is forwarded to thephysical layer.

Meanwhile, UEs that already have a valid grant obviously do not need torequest uplink resources. However, to allow the scheduler to determinethe amount of resources to grant to each terminal in future subframes,information about the buffer situation and the power availability isuseful, as discussed above. This information is provided to thescheduler as part of the uplink transmission through MAC controlelement. The LCID field in one of the MAC subheaders is set to areserved value indicating the presence of a buffer status report (BSR).

From a scheduling perspective, buffer information for each logicalchannel is beneficial, although this could result in a significantoverhead. Logical channels are therefore grouped into logical-channelgroups and the reporting is done per group. The buffer-size field in abuffer-status report indicates the amount of data available transmissionacross all logical channels in a logical-channel group.

The Buffer Status Reporting (BSR) procedure is used to provide a servingeNB with information about the amount of data available for transmission(DAT) in the UL buffers of the UE. RRC may control BSR reporting byconfiguring the three timers pe-riodicBSR-Timer and retxBSR-Timer andlogicalChannelSR-ProhibitTimer and by, for each logical channel,optionally signaling Logical Channel Group (LCG) which allocates thelogical channel to an LCG.

The Sidelink (SL) BSR procedure is used to provide the serving eNB withinformation about the amount of sidelink data available for transmissionin the SL buffers associated with the MAC entity. RRC controls BSRreporting for the sidelink by configuring the two timersperiodic-BSR-TimerSL and retx-BSR-TimerSL. Each Sidelink logical channelbelongs to a ProSe Destination. Each sidelink logical channel isallocated to a LCG depending on the priority of the sidelink logicalchannel and the mapping between LCG ID and priority which is provided byupper layers in logicalChGroupInfoList. LCG is defined per ProSeDestination.

A Sidelink BSR shall be triggered if any of the following events occur:if the MAC entity has a configured SL-RNTI i) SL data, for a sidelinklogical channel of a ProSe Destination, becomes available fortransmission in the RLC entity or in the PDCP entity and either the databelongs to a sidelink logical channel with higher priority than thepriorities of the sidelink logical channels which belong to any LCGbelonging to the same ProSe Destination and for which data is alreadyavailable for transmission, or there is currently no data available fortransmission for any of the sidelink logical channels belonging to thesame ProSe Destination, in which case the Sidelink BSR is referred belowto as “Regular Sidelink BSR”, ii) UL resources are allocated and numberof padding bits remaining after a Padding BSR has been triggered isequal to or larger than the size of the Sidelink BSR MAC control elementcontaining the buffer status for at least one LCG of a ProSe Destinationplus its subheader, in which case the Sidelink BSR is referred below toas “Padding Sidelink BSR”, iii) retx-BSR-TimerSL expires and the MACentity has data available for transmission for any of the sidelinklogical channels, in which case the Sidelink BSR is referred below to as“Regular Sidelink BSR”, iv) periodic-BSR-TimerSL expires, in which casethe Sidelink BSR is referred below to as “Periodic Sidelink BSR”. Else,An SL-RNTI is configured by upper layers and SL data is available fortransmission in the RLC entity or in the PDCP entity, in which case theSidelink BSR is referred below to as “Regular Sidelink BSR”.

For Regular and Periodic Sidelink BSR, if the number of bits in the ULgrant is equal to or larger than the size of a Sidelink BSR containingbuffer status for all LCGs having data available for transmission plusits subheader, the MAC entity reports Sidelink BSR containing bufferstatus for all LCGs having data available for transmission. Else, theMAC entity reports Truncated Sidelink BSR containing buffer status foras many LCGs having data available for transmission as possible, takingthe number of bits in the UL grant into consideration.

If the Buffer Status reporting procedure determines that at least oneSidelink BSR has been triggered and not cancelled: if the MAC entity hasUL resources allocated for new transmission for this TTI and theallocated UL resources can accommodate a Sidelink BSR MAC controlelement plus its subheader as a result of logical channelprioritization, the MAC entity instructs the Multiplexing and Assemblyprocedure to generate the Sidelink BSR MAC control element(s), starts orrestarts periodic-BSR-TimerSL except when all the generated SidelinkBSRs are Truncated Sidelink BSRs, and starts or restartsretx-BSR-TimerSL.

Else if a Regular Sidelink BSR has been triggered, if an uplink grant isnot configured, a Scheduling Request shall be triggered.

A MAC PDU shall contain at most one Sidelink BSR MAC control element,even when multiple events trigger a Sidelink BSR by the time a SidelinkBSR can be transmitted in which case the Regular Sidelink BSR and thePeriodic Sidelink BSR shall have precedence over the padding SidelinkBSR.

The MAC entity shall restart retx-BSR-TimerSL upon reception of an SLgrant.

All triggered regular Sidelink BSRs shall be cancelled in case theremaining configured SL grant(s) valid for this SC Period canaccommodate all pending data available for transmission. All triggeredSidelink BSRs shall be cancelled in case the MAC entity has no dataavailable for transmission for any of the sidelink logical channels. Alltriggered Sidelink BSRs shall be cancelled when a Sidelink BSR (exceptfor Truncated Sidelink BSR) is included in a MAC PDU for transmission.All triggered Sidelink BSRs shall be cancelled, and retx-BSR-TimerSL andperiodic-BSR-TimerSL shall be stopped, when upper layers configureautonomous resource selection.

The MAC entity shall transmit at most one Regular/Periodic Sidelink BSRin a TTI. If the MAC entity is requested to transmit multiple MAC PDUsin a TTI, it may include a padding Sidelink BSR in any of the MAC PDUswhich do not contain a Regular/Periodic Sidelink BSR.

All Sidelink BSRs transmitted in a TTI always reflect the buffer statusafter all MAC PDUs have been built for this TTI. Each LCG shall reportat the most one buffer status value per TTI and this value shall bereported in all Sidelink BSRs reporting buffer status for this LCG.

Meanwhile, Proximity-based Service (ProSe) has been discussed in 3GPPRecently. The ProSe enables different UEs to be connected (directly)each other (after appropriate procedure(s), such as authentication),through eNB only (but not further through Serving Gateway (SGW)/PacketData Network Gateway (PDN-GW, PGW)), or through SGW/PGW. Thus, using theProSe, device to device direct communication can be provided, and it isexpected that every devices will be connected with ubiquitousconnectivity. Direct communication between devices in a near distancecan lessen the load of network. Recently, proximity-based social networkservices have come to public attention, and new kinds of proximity-basedapplications can be emerged and may create new business market andrevenue. For the first step, public safety and critical communicationare required in the market. Group communication is also one of keycomponents in the public safety system. Required functionalities are:Discovery based on proximity, Direct path communication, and Managementof group communications.

Use cases and scenarios are for example: i) Commercial/social use, ii)Network offloading, iii) Public Safety, iv) Integration of currentinfrastructure services, to assure the consistency of the userexperience including reachability and mobility aspects, and v) PublicSafety, in case of absence of EUTRAN coverage (subject to regionalregulation and operator policy, and limited to specific public-safetydesignated frequency bands and terminals)

FIG. 7 is an example of default data path for communication between twoUEs. With reference to FIG. 7, even when two UEs (e.g., UE1, UE2) inclose proximity com-municate with each other, their data path (userplane) goes via the operator network. Thus a typical data path for thecommunication involves eNB(s) and/or Gateway(s) (GW(s)) (e.g., SGW/PGW).

FIGS. 8 and 9 are examples of data path scenarios for a proximitycommunication. If wireless devices (e.g., UE1, UE2) are in proximity ofeach other, they may be able to use a direct mode data path (FIG. 8) ora locally routed data path (FIG. 9). In the direct mode data path,wireless devices are connected directly each other (after appropriateprocedure(s), such as authentication), without eNB and SGW/PGW. In thelocally routed data path, wireless devices are connected each otherthrough eNB only.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram illustrating for a Layer 2 structure forSidelink.

Sidelink communication is a mode of communication whereby UEs cancom-municate with each other directly over the PC5 interface. Thiscommunication mode is supported when the UE is served by E-UTRAN andwhen the UE is outside of E-UTRA coverage. Only those UEs authorized tobe used for public safety operation can perform sidelink communication.

In order to perform synchronization for out of coverage operation UE(s)may act as a synchronization source by transmitting Sidelink BroadcastControl Channel (SBCCH) and a synchronization signal. SBCCH carries themost essential system information needed to receive other sidelinkchannels and signals. SBCCH along with a synchronization signal istransmitted with a fixed periodicity of 40 ms. When the UE is in networkcoverage, the contents of SBCCH are derived from the parameterssignalled by the eNB. When the UE is out of coverage, if the UE selectsanother UE as a synchronization reference, then the content of SBCCH isderived from the received SBCCH; otherwise UE uses pre-configuredparameters. SIB18 provides the resource information for synchronizationsignal and SBCCH transmission. There are two pre-configured subframesevery 40 ms for out of coverage operation. UE receives synchronizationsignal and SBCCH in one subframe and transmit synchronization signal andSBCCH on another subframe if UE becomes synchronization source based ondefined criterion.

UE performs sidelink communication on subframes defined over theduration of Sidelink Control period. The Sidelink Control period is theperiod over which resources allocated in a cell for sidelink controlinformation and sidelink data transmissions occur. Within the SidelinkControl period the UE sends sidelink control information followed bysidelink data. Sidelink control information indicates a Layer 1 ID andcharacteristics of the transmissions (e.g. MCS, location of theresource(s) over the duration of Sidelink Control period, timingalignment).

The UE performs transmission and reception over Uu and PC5 with thefollowing decreasing priority order:

-   -   Uu transmission/reception (highest priority);    -   PC5 sidelink communication transmission/reception;    -   PC5 sidelink discovery announcement/monitoring (lowest        priority).

FIG. 11A is a conceptual diagram illustrating for User-Plane protocolstack for ProSe Direct Communication, and FIG. 11B is Control-Planeprotocol stack for ProSe Direct Communication.

FIG. 11A shows the protocol stack for the user plane, where PDCP, RLCand MAC sublayers (terminate at the other UE) perform the functionslisted for the user plane (e.g. header compression, HARQretransmissions). The PC5 interface consists of PDCP, RLC, MAC and PHYas shown in FIG. 11A.

User plane details of ProSe Direct Communication: i) there is no HARQfeedback for sidelink communication, ii) RLC Unacknowledged mode (UM) isused for sidelink communication, iii) RLC UM is used for sidelinkcommunication, iv) a receiving RLC UM entity used for sidelinkcommunication does not need to be configured prior to reception of thefirst RLC UM Mode Data (UMD) PDU, and v) Robust Header Compression(ROHC) Unidirectional Mode is used for header compression in PDCP forsidelink communication.

A UE may establish multiple logical channels. LCID included within theMAC subheader uniquely identifies a logical channel within the scope ofone Source Layer-2 ID and ProSe Layer-2 Group ID combination. Parametersfor logical channel prioritization are not configured. The Accessstratum (AS) is provided with the ProSe Per-Packet Priority (PPPP) ofprotocol data unit transmitted over PC5 interface by higher layer. Thereis a PPPP associated with each logical channel.

FIG. 11B shows the protocol stack for the control plane.

A UE does not establish and maintain a logical connection to receivingUEs prior to one-to-many a sidelink communication. Higher layerestablish and maintain a logical connection for one-to-one sidelinkcommunication including ProSe UE-to-Network Relay operation. The AccessStratum protocol stack for SBCCH in the PC5 interface consists of RRC,RLC, MAC and PHY as shown below in FIG. 11B.

Over PC5 interface, Per-Packet Priority (PPP) is used to prioritize acertain packet, where the priority is independent with ProSe destinationor ProSe UE. In order to prioritize the packet with higher priority overUu interface as well, the Relay UE needs to know the priority of thepacket so that the Relay UE provides more opportunities of transmissionto the packet with higher priority.

Regarding ProSe Per-Packet Priority (PPPP), it may be assumed asfollows: i) a single UE shall be able to transmit packets of differentpriorities on PC5, ii) the UE upper layers provide to the access stratuma ProSe Per Packet Priority from a range of possible values, iii) theProSe Per Packet Priority is used to support preferential transmissionof packets both intra-UE and across different UEs, iv) the support of 8priority levels for the ProSe Per Packet Priority should be sufficient,v) the ProSe Per Packet Priority applies to all PC5 traffic, and vi) theProSe Per Packet Priority is independent of the layer-2 destination ofthe transmission.

Meanwhile, to support ProSe priorities, BSR and LCP procedures may haveto be changed from LTE Rel-12, and it will be described with referenceto FIG. 12.

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary relationship of logical channels, PPP, LCGand ProSe group for describing BSR/LCP procedures to support ProSepriorities.

In Rel-12, a lot about supporting Group priority in BSR and LCPprocedures have been discussed, but finally it is decided that ProSepriority is not supported in Rel-12. Consequently, BSR/LCP procedures inRel-12 becomes as follows: i) The UE assigns a logical channel priorityto a sidelink logical channel by UE implementation, ii) The UE mapssidelink logical channels to a LCG with LCG ID set to ‘11’, iii) Whensending a SL BSR, the UE includes buffer status (BS) of all ProSe groupshaving SL data as many as it can. Which ProSe group's BS should beincluded first is up to UE implementation, and iv) When the UE receivesa SL grant, the UE selects one ProSe group by UE implementation, andperforms LCP procedure for logical channels belonging to the selectedProSe group.

In contrast, in Rel-13, it is decided that Per Packet Priority (PPP) foreach PDCP SDU is provided, and up to 8 priority levels are supported forall PC5 traffic. Then, it seems obvious that the Rel-12's BSR/LCPprocedures need to be modified, thus there are some proposals forsupporting the PPP as follows: i) Proposal 1: The UE assigns a logicalchannel priority to a sidelink logical channel based on PPP, ii)Proposal 2: Define LCG per ProSe group, and, within one ProSe group,each sidelink logical channel is mapped to one of four LCGs depending onthe PPP of the sidelink logical channel, iii) Proposal 3: When sending aSL BSR, the UE includes BS of all LCGs having SL data among all ProSegroups as many as it can. The BS of LCG having the sidelink logicalchannel with the highest PPP should be included first, iv) Proposal 3a:For SL BSR, the UE include BS of LCGs in decreasing priority order ofLCG priority (the highest PPP of sidelink logical channels belonging tothe LCG), v) Proposal 4: When the UE receives a SL grant, the UE selectsthe ProSe group having the sidelink logical channel with the highest PPPamong the sidelink logical channels having SL data, and performs LCPprocedure for all sidelink logical channels belonging to the selectedProSe group.

Meanwhile, there is one issue in the Proposal 3. If UL resource remainsafter including the highest priority LCG (i.e., a LCG having sidelinklogical channel with the highest PPP), in which order the UE shouldinclude BS of remaining LCGs? Regarding this, two options may beconsidered.

In first Option, the UE may set a LCG priority to the highest PPP ofsidelink logical channels belonging to the LCG, and include BS of LCGsin decreasing priority order of the LCG priority. Table 1 shows anexample of SL BSR construction according to the first Option, in case ofFIG. 12. Referring to FIG. 12, the LCG priority is LCG0>LCG3>LCG2. Thus,the SL BSR is filled in order of BS of LCG0, BS of LCG3, and BS of LCG2,as shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 ProSe group 13 LCG 0 BS of LCG 0 of ProSe group 13 ProSe group27 LCG 3 BS of LCG 3 of ProSe group 27 ProSe group 13 LCG 2 BS of LCG 2of ProSe group 13 ProSe group 27 LCG 2 BS of LCG 2 of ProSe group 27

In second Option, the UE set a ProSe group priority to the highest PPPof sidelink logical channels belonging to the ProSe group, and includeBS of LCGs in decreasing priority order of ProSe group priority. For thesame ProSe group, include BS of LCGs in decreasing priority order of LCGpriority. Table 2 shows an example of SL BSR construction according tothe second Option, in case of FIG. 12. Referring to FIG. 12, the ProSegroup priority is ProSe group 13>ProSe group 27. Thus, the SL BSR isfilled in order of BS with ProSe group 13, and BS with ProSe group 27,as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 ProSe group 13 LCG 0 BS of LCG 0 of ProSe group 13 ProSe group13 LCG 2 BS of LCG 2 of ProSe group 13 ProSe group 27 LCG 3 BS of LCG 3of ProSe group 27 ProSe group 27 LCG 2 BS of LCG 2 of ProSe group 27

As discussed above, in Rel-13, each sidelink logical channel would bemapped to a specific PPPP of SL data. The intention is to prioritize SLdata having higher PPPP. Meanwhile, there is an agreement regarding LCGaspect, define LCG per ProSe destination and within one ProSedestination, each sidelink logical channel is mapped to one of four LCGsdepending on the PPPP of the sidelink logical channel. However, there isno agreement about how to map PPPP to a LCG.

In ProSe BSR, the buffer status is reported per LCG, where LCG isdefined per ProSe Destination and each LCG is mapped to certain PPPPs.By reporting the buffer status per LCG which mapped to a certain PPPPs,the eNB can know how many data of certain PPPPs are stored in the UEside. Thus, the eNB can schedule the sidelink resource by taking thePPPP of data into account.

For this, the UE needs to receive an RRC configuration signal whichindicates the LCG and PPPP mapping. As an alternative, it is possible toindicate each LCG ID and its associated PPPPs so that the UE canexplicitly know the mapping between the LCG and the PPPPs. However, thiswould increase the signaling overhead.

As there is always 4 LCGs having LCG IDs from 00 (=0) to 11 (=3) pereach ProSe Destination, it wouldn't be necessary to explicitly indicatethe LCG IDs for LCG-PPPP mapping. Instead, a method with reducedsignaling overhead can be considered.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for allocating priorities to a logical channelgroup implicitly in a D2D communication system according to embodimentsof the present invention.

It is invented that when an UE receives an LCG-priority mapping from aneNB, the UE associates the Priority List included in the LCG-prioritymapping with an LCG in pre-defined order of LCG IDs.

The UE receives information including one or more priority lists from aneNB (S1301). The information includes N numbers of priority lists inorder of increasing logical channel group identity.

Here, the N is the number of logical channel groups configured to theUE, and one of the N numbers of priority lists indicates one or morepriorities associated with a logical channel group.

For example, the first Priority List of the N numbers of priority listsincluded in the information is for a Priority List of a LCG having thelowest LCG ID, e.g., 00 (=0), and the last Priority List of the Nnumbers of priority lists in the information is for a Priority List of aLCG having the highest LCG ID, e.g., 11 (=3).

For example, in order to configure LCG-priority mapping for 4 LCGs, theLCG-priority mapping includes 4 Priority Lists.

Preferably, the eNB sends an RRC signal including the informationincluding one or more priority lists. The RRC signal can belogicalChGroupInfoList Information Element.

When the UE receives the information from the eNB, the UE associateseach of the N numbers of priority lists with each of the N numbers oflogical channel groups in an order corresponding to a sequential orderof the information (S1303).

Here, a logical channel group of the associated N numbers of logicalchannel groups is associated with one or more priorities indicated by apriority list associated with the logical channel group.

For example, the UE associates the PPPPs in the first Priority List withthe LCG having the lowest LCG ID, e.g., 00 (=0). And, the UE associatesthe PPPPs in the second Priority List with the LCG having the secondlowest LCG ID, e.g., 01 (=1), and so on. Finally, the UE associates thePPPPs in the last Priority List with the LCG having the highest LCG ID,e.g., 11 (=3).

When being configured with a sidelink logical channel, the UE allocatesthe sidelink logical channel to an LCG according to the PPPP associatedwith the sidelink logical channel, and the PPPPs associated with the LCG(S1305). Thus, when a sidelink logical channel with a first priority isconfigured, the UE allocates the sidelink logical channel with the firstpriority to a logical channel group associated with the first priority.

Meanwhile, when reporting the buffer status to the eNB, the UE reportsthe buffer status per LCG by calculating the amount of data of thesidelink logical channels associated with each LCG.

FIG. 14 is an example for allocating priorities to a logical channelgroup implicitly in a D2D communication system according to embodimentsof the present invention.

Let's assume that if the UE is configured 4 LCGs including LCG 1 withLCG ID=00 (or 0), LCG 2 with LCG ID=01 (or 1), LCG 3 with LCG ID=10(or2), and LCG 4 with LCG ID=11 (or 3), the information includes 4 prioritylists (See, Table A).

And a first priority list includes PPPP0, a second priority listincludes PPPP1, and PPPP2, a third priority list includes PPPP3 andPPPP4, and the last priority list includes PPPP5, PPPP6, PPPP7, andPPPP8 (See, Table B).

In this case, if the UE receives information including 4 priority listsfrom an eNB, the first priority list including PPPP0 is for LCG 1, thesecond priority list including PPPP1, and PPPP2 is for LCG 2, the thirdpriority list including PPPP3 and PPPP4 is for LCG 3, and the lastpriority list including PPPP5, PPPP6, PPPP7, and PPPP8 is for LCG 4,because the information includes 4 priority lists in order of increasinglogical channel group identity.

Accordingly, when the UE associates each of the 4 priority lists witheach of 4 LCGs, the LCG 1 is associated with PPPP0 in the first prioritylist, the LCG 2 is associated with PPPP1 and PPPP2 in the secondpriority list, the LCG 3 is associated with PPPP3 and PPPP4 in the thirdpriority list, and the LCG 4 is associated with PPPP5, PPPP6, PPPP7 andPPPP8 in the fourth priority list (See, Table C).

Just receiving the information including priority lists makes the UEknow LCG-PPPP mapping relation. This method is for implicit allocationof LCG-PPPP mapping. Using this method, it wouldn't be necessary toexplicitly indicate the LCG IDs for LCG-PPPP mapping. It can be reducedsignaling overhead.

In this case, when the UE configures a first sidelink logical channelwith PPPP1, a second sidelink logical channel with PPPP2, and a thirdsidelink logical channel with PPPP4, the first sidelink logical channeland the second sidelink logical channel are allocated to the LCG 2, andthe third logical channel is allocated to the LCG 3 (See, Table D).

The embodiments of the present invention described hereinbelow arecombinations of elements and features of the present invention. Theelements or features may be considered selective unless otherwisementioned. Each element or feature may be practiced without beingcombined with other elements or features. Further, an embodiment of thepresent invention may be constructed by combining parts of the elementsand/or features. Operation orders described in embodiments of thepresent invention may be rearranged. Some constructions of any oneembodiment may be included in another embodiment and may be replacedwith corresponding constructions of another embodiment. It is obvious tothose skilled in the art that claims that are not explicitly cited ineach other in the appended claims may be presented in combination as anembodiment of the present invention or included as a new claim bysubsequent amendment after the application is filed.

In the embodiments of the present invention, a specific operationdescribed as performed by the BS may be performed by an upper node ofthe BS. Namely, it is apparent that, in a network comprised of aplurality of network nodes including a BS, various operations performedfor communication with an MS may be performed by the BS, or networknodes other than the BS. The term ‘eNB’ may be replaced with the term‘fixed station’, ‘Node B’, ‘Base Station (BS)’, ‘access point’, etc.

The above-described embodiments may be implemented by various means, forexample, by hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof.

In a hardware configuration, the method according to the embodiments ofthe present invention may be implemented by one or more ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs),Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices(PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers,microcontrollers, or microprocessors.

In a firmware or software configuration, the method according to theembodiments of the present invention may be implemented in the form ofmodules, procedures, functions, etc. performing the above-describedfunctions or operations. Software code may be stored in a memory unitand executed by a processor. The memory unit may be located at theinterior or exterior of the processor and may transmit and receive datato and from the processor via various known means.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention maybe carried out in other specific ways than those set forth hereinwithout departing from essential characteristics of the presentinvention. The above embodiments are therefore to be construed in allaspects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the inventionshould be determined by the appended claims, not by the abovedescription, and all changes coming within the meaning of the appendedclaims are intended to be embraced therein.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

While the above-described method has been described centering on anexample applied to the 3GPP LTE system, the present invention isapplicable to a variety of wireless communication systems in addition tothe 3GPP LTE system.

1-10. (canceled)
 11. A method for a User Equipment (UE) operating in awireless communication system, the method comprising: receivinginformation including N numbers of priority lists in order of increasinglogical channel group identity from an eNB, wherein N is a number oflogical channel groups configured to the UE, and one of the N numbers ofpriority lists indicates one or more priorities associated with alogical channel group; associating each of the N numbers of prioritylists with each of the N numbers of logical channel groups in an ordercorresponding to a sequential order of the information, when a sidelinklogical channel with a first priority is configured, allocating thesidelink logical channel with the first priority to a logical channelgroup associated with the first priority.
 12. The method according toclaim 11, wherein a first priority list included in the information isassociated with a logical channel group having a lowest logical channelgroup identity, and a last priority list included in the information isassociated with a logical channel group having a highest logical channelgroup identity.
 13. The method according to claim 11, wherein thepriority is a ProSe Per-Packet Priority.
 14. The method according toclaim 11, wherein the information is received via an RRC signaling. 15.The method according to claim 11, wherein the information islogicalChGroupInfoList.
 16. A User Equipment (UE) for operating in awireless communication system, the UE comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF)module; and a processor operably coupled with the RF module andconfigured to: receive information including N numbers of priority listsin order of increasing logical channel group identity from an eNB,wherein N is a number of logical channel groups configured to the UE,and one of the N numbers of priority lists indicates one or morepriorities associated with a logical channel group; associate each ofthe N numbers of priority lists with each of the N numbers of logicalchannel groups in an order corresponding to a sequential order of theinformation; and when a sidelink logical channel with a first priorityis configured, allocate the sidelink logical channel with the firstpriority to a logical channel group associated with the first priority.17. The UE according to claim 16, wherein a first priority list includedin the information is associated with a logical channel group having alowest logical channel group identity, and a last priority list includedin the information is associated with a logical channel group having ahighest logical channel group identity.
 18. The UE according to claim16, wherein the priority is a ProSe Per-Packet Priority.
 19. The UEaccording to claim 16, wherein the information is received via an RRCsignaling.
 20. The UE according to claim 16, wherein the information islogicalChGroupInfoList.
 21. The method according to claim 11, wherein alogical channel group is associated with one or more prioritiesindicated by a priority list associated with the logical channel group.22. The UE according to claim 16, wherein a logical channel group isassociated with one or more priorities indicated by a priority listassociated with the logical channel group.